Think people are rather understating the magnitude of the keeper's ****-up. It was a regulation curling shot and he completely botched it, wasn't one that randomly swerved or anything.

Other than that not sure how the teams scraped two goals out of that half with Dirk Kuyt, not many men committed forward, Dirk Kuyt, incompetent linesmanship, decent and well organised defences and Dirk Kuyt.

It's not cheating. He knew the punishment and he openly did it knowing it. It's knowing the rules and openly using them to help your team.

And if you aren't willing to cop a one game suspension to guarantee your team a spot in the semi final, you shouldn't be playing on a team.

Haha, nah mate it is cheating.

If I try and cheat in an exam by bringing in papers I'm not allowed to do, it is cheating. It doesn't make a difference if I'm caught and the punishment is an instant fail, or I'm caught and the punishment is that I have to stand in the corner for 2 minutes, which I'd be more than happy to do in order to have the advantage of the papers.

If you break the law, knowing the punishment and accept being caught, you still have committed a criminal act.

Hence if you break a rule in sport, even if you know the punishment and accept it, you still have cheated.

And I never said Suarez shouldn't have done what he did for his country. It isn't a reason to support the team though. You'd think players that can get through by largely following the rules would be the ones to support.

If I try and cheat in an exam by bringing in papers I'm not allowed to do, it is cheating. It doesn't make a difference if I'm caught and the punishment is an instant fail, or I'm caught and the punishment is that I have to stand in the corner for 2 minutes, which I'd be more than happy to do in order to have the advantage of the papers.

If you break the law, knowing the punishment and accept being caught, you still have committed a criminal act.

Hence if you break a rule in sport, even if you know the punishment and accept it, you still have cheated.

And I never said Suarez shouldn't have done what he did for his country. It isn't a reason to support the team though. You'd think players that can get through by largely following the rules would be the ones to support.

OK, can you count the number of players who are pulling on shirts on a corner kick?

Training bloody hard and being willing to go that extra mile shows commitment too. Also within the rules.

Again, not arguing that Suarez shouldn't have done it necessarily (I've argued for a rule change anyway to prevent it from being an option) but my point is that it shouldn't be revered as a great trait.

Smacks of "I'll support the act to spite those that want a rule change because of it"

Also interesting, I don't quite remember your posts regarding Henry's hand ball incident. Be interested if you appreciated that. Just because he wasn't caught doesn't change the fact as to whether you'd back France because of it.

Starting to develop a grudging respect for Van Bommel TBH - anyone who has done so much legwork as to have incriminating photos of every ref in the world to avoid ever getting booked has clearly earned it.